La first day at Phillip Island was studious for the official Ducati troops who were not invited in the quest for the best time of these tests which will continue until the 17th. A period of time that Dovizioso hopes to take advantage of the opportunity to tame a GP17 that is much less comfortable than at Sepang, the venue for the first tests of the year in MotoGP. The Italian admits: there is work to do.
Ducati will have to analyze this start in Australia carefully. If two of his flock managed to complete their work in the top 10, only Andrea Dovizioso represents the factory, since Petrucci sixth, ahead of DesmoDovi eighth and author of a performance in 1'30.410. Which is less good than the 1'29.497 of the reference Marc Marquez.
Almost a second separates the Honda from the Ducati, as if the roles between Malaysia and Australia had been reversed for these teams. The Italian, recognized as the one who shows the way among the reds while waiting for Lorenzo gets his bearings, explains: “ the temperatures are different here and they will not be what we will have for the Grand Prix in October. These tests will be useful to us but will not really be of use to us for what will be the fall when we return ».
« I'm pretty happy with the bike. This first day was devoted to major chassis comparisons, notably between the new one and another with a different aluminum compound. We still need to test a lot of things before deciding on our choices. We also tried some settings for this track. But tomorrow we'll try something else. These are our second tests of the year, and we still need to find our base for Qatar. There's still a lot of work to do, but I have good feelings ».
As for the chassis, he details: “ this is not a fundamentally new chassis, but rather a different specification. The conditions here are completely different from the humidity and heat experienced in Sepang. But it's the same for everyone and it's important to have feedback in these two configurations. It's not easy to find the basics of adjustments and in Qatar, it will be different again. We try to find this base ».
He finishes : " At the moment, our stability is not satisfactory. The results show it. We need a more stable motorcycle and especially on Phillip Island, it's difficult to find. Especially because of the wind. We still have a lot of room for improvement ". The evolution of GP17 over the next few days will be interesting to observe. For his part, Jorge Lorenzo settled for a 1'30.632, synonymous with the eleventh performance.
| Pos | Pile | Team | Chrono | Difference | Laps | |
| 1 | MARCHEZ, Marc | Repsol Honda Team | 1:29.497 | 53 / 68 | ||
| 2 | Rossi, Valentine | Yamaha Motor Racing | 1:29.683 | 0.186 | 76 / 77 | |
| 3 | P | IANNON, Andrew | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1:29.926 | 0.429 | 68 / 70 |
| 4 | P | VIÑALES, Maverick | Yamaha Motor Racing | 1:29.989 | 0.492 | 26 / 64 |
| 5 | P | CRUTCHLOW, Cal | Honda LCR | 1:30.065 | 0.568 | 61 / 61 |
| 6 | P | PETRUCCI, Danilo | Octo Pramac Racing | 1:30.262 | 0.765 | 87 / 87 |
| 7 | P | PEDROSA, Dani | Repsol Honda Team | 1:30.281 | 0.784 | 13 / 55 |
| 8 | DOVIZIOSO, Andrew | Ducati Team | 1:30.410 | 0.913 | 16 / 64 | |
| 9 | MILLER, Jack | Team EG 0,0 Marc VDS | 1:30.426 | 0.929 | 80 / 82 | |
| 10 | P | Folger, Jonas | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1:30.578 | 1.081 | 30 / 62 |
| 11 | P | LORENZO, Jorge | Ducati Team | 1:30.631 | 1.134 | 33 / 61 |
| 12 | P | BAUTISTA, Alvaro | Pull&Bear Aspar Team | 1:30.770 | 1.273 | 24 / 68 |
| 13 | BARBERA, Hector | Royal Esponsorama Racing | 1:30.771 | 1.274 | 7 / 51 | |
| 14 | P | Espargaro, Aleix | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1:30.802 | 1.305 | 26 / 28 |
| 15 | P | ZARCO, Johann | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1:30.867 | 1.370 | 77 / 80 |
| 16 | ABRAHAM, Karel | Pull&Bear Aspar Team | 1:31.179 | 1.682 | 17 / 61 | |
| 17 | ESPARGARÓ, Pol | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1:31.200 | 1.703 | 54 / 59 | |
| 18 | P | BAZ, Loris | Royal Esponsorama Racing | 1:31.249 | 1.752 | 56 / 60 |
| 19 | P | Rins, Alex | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1:31.432 | 1.935 | 66 / 66 |
| 20 | REDDING, Scott | Octo Pramac Racing | 1:31.755 | 2.258 | 33 / 59 | |
| 21 | LOWES, Sam | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1:32.307 | 2.810 | 15 / 35 | |
| 22 | P | SMITH, Bradley | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1:32.690 | 3.193 | 43 / 57 |
